Captcha is a test that comes to validate web users as humans (=rather than computer bots).
the captcha test can be used for site registration, for example – just before registration is completed the user is asked to copy an image with distorted letters. Since those letters are captured in images and are displayed randomly, and bots can not “read” images, the CAPTCHA test suppose to “stop bots from passing the test and using the web for their inetrests”.
But what about people who suffer from some kind of sight impairment including blindness?
They can not solve the captcha test (they can not see the captcha image well and thus can not copy it) and thus, just like bots, can not register to sites and other online services that use captcha.
But do not worry, there’s a solution for this problem and it called: Audio Captcha.
People who suffer from sight impairment need to pass an audio captcha test in which they are asked to listen to a series of numbers or letters with a lot of background noise and then repeat them through typing the letters/numbers.
The idea is that humans can filter the background noise but a computer bot – can’t.
Unfortunately the audio captcha test is not perfect.
First, there are people who suffer from sight impairment / blindness that also have hearing problems.
Second, statistic shows that only 46% of audio captchas users are able to decipher the test and that the process takes 65 seconds at least , relatively much longer than a textual Captcha (about 12 seconds).
Third, most of the sites don’t use audio-captchas yet.
What other transformations will make the captcha test suitable for all?
Only time will tell…
